190 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



formerly observed was due to a slight admixture of furfurol. It 

 gives, however, with diazobenzol sulphonic acid when tested in the 

 manner described by Penzoldt and Fischer * a color identical in 

 shade with that given by furfurol. With hydrochloric acid and 

 resorcine it gives an orange-red, with pyrogallol a carmine-red 

 condensation product. Aniline acetate paper gives at first no 

 color, or at best turns but a light yellow, but on standing a deep 

 orange-color is developed. With phenylbydrazine a liquid hydra- 

 zone is formed, which we have not further examined. Tbe specific 

 gravity of methylfurfurol we have found to be somewhat higher 

 than given by Maquenne.f A freshly prepared sample made with 

 great care gave us at 18° referred to water at the same temperature 

 the specific gravity 1.1087, or 1.1072 referred to water at 4°. As 

 the sample was slightly colored it was distilled twice in a stream 

 of hydrogen, but the specific gravity was altered but a few units 

 in the fifth decimal place. The original fraction 186-187° (cor.) 

 from which this sample was made gave a specific gravity of 1.1059. 

 Maquenne found the specific gravity of his fraction 185-187° to be 

 1.107, and of the portion boiling at 187° to be 1.101. In water 

 methylfurfurol is more sparingly soluble than furfurol, and re- 

 quires about thirty times its weight of water at ordinary tempera- 

 tures for complete solution. 



Since it was difficult to form even an approximate estimate of 

 the relative amounts of furfurol and of methylfurfurol contained 

 in the crude oil from an examination of the residues from previous 

 distillations which we had at our disposal, we submitted to frac- 

 tional distillation about 50 kilograms of the crude oil. We used 

 a copper retort of eight litres' capacity, which was fitted with 

 a suitable column made out of large thin-walled brass pipe and 

 filled with glass beads. After repeated distillations we obtained 

 about two per cent of the material taken in the fraction boiling 

 from 182° to 186° (uncorrected), and sixty per cent in the fraction 

 boiling from 160° to 165°. Although the absolute amounts doubt- 

 less would have been somewhat increased by further separation of 

 the small intermediate fractions, the relative amounts could have 

 been little altered. 



Methy If urfur amide, C 18 H 18 N 2 3 . — An aqueous solution of methyl- 

 furfurol, when mixed with amnionic hydrate, gives after the lapse 



* Berichte der deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., XVI. 657. 

 t Ann. Chim. Phys., [6.], XXII. 84. - 



